Mariah Carey
Here For It All
Mariah/Gamma
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Fanfare in the rollout, Friz Quadrata on the cover, depth in the content, and sales racking up on the ledger: yep, sounds like Mariah Carey has released a fresh new studio album. We don’t get the pleasure of this experience as often now, which makes it even more special. From her record-setting ‘90s work up to the experimental and edgy Caution (2018), she always delivers something worth talking about. This streak continues on her latest effort in seven years, Here For It All.
Carey has mastered the marriage of forward-leaning R&B with hip-hop culture in a way that honors traditions of the past. The difference this time is she’s making the magic happen for the first time without major label support. Fans expect sharp songcraft with slick humor, top-notch production, and resonance over time. That’s a lot to accomplish, but it’s all here.
Like “Dreamlover,” “Honey,” the “Heartbreaker” remix, and “It’s Like That,” her most exciting opening gambits always sync up with her love for classic hip-hop. She comes out of the blocks hot with “Type Dangerous,” much of the smoke wafting up from Eric B. & Rakim’s “Eric B. For President.” Adopting a James Bond-style, leather-clad aesthetic, she sings about her favorite rebels, while murderous 808s in the bouncy track slay all competition.
Her black dress and sunshades were once the calling card of her evil alter-ego “Bianca.” Now they underscore the unshakeable cool with which Carey approaches everything on Here For It All. It also shows on the laid back, coy confection “Sugar Sweet.” Disliking this second single’s balmy dancehall afrobeats may indicate a critical flaw in you; possibly you are a psychopath and/or you hate ice cream, both equally criminal. While Carey first tackled the tune solo, digital releases find her joined by Kehlani and Shenseea to make a flirty girls’ night out anthem.
She plays nice with guests, but Carey already declared this “The Era of Mi,” deftly name-checking the new disc’s first track. “Mi” lets her showboat like a battle emcee, except sung with sleek tongue over a flashy trap beat (“I’m a bad bitch but I’m good company”). Self-affirmation is revisited on “Confetti & Champagne,” her atmospheric dismissal of a trashy mate with an appropriate amount of pettiness (“Cheers to me, not you, just me”).
Where she’s virtually never without frequent collaborators like Jermaine Dupri or The-Dream, she elects to freshen her personnel. In addition to loyal henchman Daniel Moore II, Carey is her own producer alongside Tobe Nwigwe, Bongo Bytheway, HARV, Felisha King, and notable figure Anderson .Paak.
Paak co-produces three tunes including “In Your Feelings” and his duet with Carey, “Play This Song.” Both take the wide-lapelled ‘70s appeal of Silk Sonic and cross it with her own soulful tunes like “Mine Again,” “Circles,” and “I Wish You Knew” from The Emancipation Of Mimi (2005). Paak’s vintage grooves propel Carey well, but they collaborate best on the glistening disco blaze “I Won’t Allow It.” Her hair gallops in the wind as she rides this bronco-bucking beat. Catch her cheeky wordplay while ejecting romantic refuse from her life (“Can’t obtain any Accutane / Should’ve been more Proactiv”).
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Snappy soul aside, she’s always good for inspirational ballads. With its light cinematic touches that make her point without belaboring her point, “Nothing Is Impossible” revisits the territory Carey has marked with “Hero,” “Butterfly,” “Through the Rain,” and the like. In the same vein, her treatment of the Paul McCartney and Wings chestnut “My Love” is in line with her interpreting rock mainstays by Harry Nilsson, Journey, Def Leppard, or Phil Collins into her canon.
The gospel warmth in the background of “My Love” steps to the fore on “Jesus I Do.” Carey invites The Clark Sisters to put their arms around her and walk her to the altar. Together they make this sanctified boogie quite moving, whether you were raised on a pew or not. That same anchored feel carries into the final song.
“I titled [the album] Here For It All because it's my favorite song on the album—and I didn't want it to get lost,” Carey explains to GQ. “I wanted to make sure people listened all the way through the album to that song.”
At first examination, “Here For It All” seems a standard piano-backed declaration of love and fidelity to a boyfriend, but from a wider lens, the lyrics may also apply to Carey. As she sings “this is just a rehearsal” on its extended reprise, it may address life’s impermanence even when you can afford “Bugattis or whatever they’re called.” When she mentions “some things I don’t care to recall,” it could reference anything from her lighthearted “I don’t know her” catchphrase, all the way to the tragic loss of both her mother and sister on the same day in 2024—which she has only begun to speak of recently.
From a bird’s eye view, the song—and to greater extent, the album—function as a statement of Carey’s unwavering commitment never to abandon herself. Beneath the sparkle and celebration, Here for It All is a testimony. Having survived a lifetime of assaults on the self, she again returns to bear her titanium soul. She once avowed to a cheering crowd, “I’mma do the best I can with what I got!” And here she is, doing just as promised, and that’s all we’re here for.
Notable Tracks: “Here For It All” | “I Won’t Allow It” | “My Love” | “Type Dangerous”
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